Infrastructure Management Software Blog : Research in Motion

Enabling Enterprise BlackBerry Management

pspielvogel — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:46:00 GMT

We have conducted several webinars with analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). I am very excited that Steve Brasen, Principal Analyst, has agreed to provide a “guest post” to our blog about “Enabling Enterprise BlackBerry Management”.
- Peter Spielvogel

So, what’s the big deal about managing mobile devices at the enterprise level? Isn’t it the same as managing desktop systems? Well, yes and no – but mostly no. At a high level, desktops, laptops and mobile devices all have similar requirements for support services in areas including provisioning and security along with incident, asset and configuration management. But the management practices necessary to meet these requirements are very different for mobile devices. Due to the portable nature of mobile devices, their smaller size provides less computing power than desktop systems and their unique user interfaces require specialized drivers and applications. Additionally, since mobile devices perform their functions remotely, there are additional management concerns around connectivity and security.

Certainly all these challenges are applicable to any mobile device type, but the recent and significant increase in the business adoption of BlackBerry devices has focused attention on providing solutions for centralized, enterprise-wide mobile management for that particular platform. Research in Motion (RIM) has already stepped up to the plate by offering its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) solution. BES enables centralized remote management of BlackBerry devices and acts as a secure conduit for accessing messaging services, such as email and file sharing applications. In EMA’s recently published Impact Brief, “HP and RIM Join Forces to Enable Holistic Enterprise BlackBerry Management,” it is revealed how back-end systems, such as mail servers and databases, also need to be administered from a single common management platform.

We are only beginning to see how mobile technologies will transform the way businesses operate in the near future, but clearly the foundations of managing a mobile workforce are being laid today and are building on established best practices and vetted technologies to simplify and enhance enterprise wide administration.

Steve Brasen
Principal Analyst
Enterprise Management Associates

BlackBerry Management Webinar (Empowering a Mobile Workforce)

pspielvogel — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:52:00 GMT

We have written about the challenges of managing Black Berry Enterprise Server environments, mostly because of all the disparate elements that must work together properly to ensure that people receive their email. For a user to successfully send or receive a message, the following applications must interact smoothly: BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Active Directory, and Microsoft SQL Server.

You can imagine the challenge of troubleshooting performance problems if you do not have a single console from which to manage faults and performance data. When the CEO is calling about his or her email, I would certainly want an easy way to determine when the service will be back online.

If you manage BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, you will certainly want to attend this.

One lucky attendee will win a BlackBerry (actual device will depend on your coverage area)!

Title: Empowering a Mobile Workforce: A Holistic Approach to Managing your BlackBerry Ecosystem
Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Time: 11 am Pacific / 2 pm Eastern / Check Your Time Zone
Additional Speakers:
- Pierluigi Buonicore, Product Manager, Research in Motion (RIM)
- Jonathan Evans, Product Marketing, Research in Motion (RIM)
- Jon Haworth,Product Marketing Manager, HP

Behind every executive’s BlackBerry is a complex IT infrastructure for delivering messages and mission-critical mobile applications. So, when performance or availability issues occur, the Operations Team has no time to waste in identifying the cause of the problem and fixing it. Using a single event monitoring console improves visibility across the BlackBerry ecosystem and streamlines communications among your subject matter expert teams - enabling faster problem resolution and less downtime.

In this one-hour webinar EMA VP Dennis Drogseth, Research in Motion (RIM) Product Manager Pierluigi Buonicore, Jonathan Evans from RIM Product Marketing, and HP Product Marketing Manager Jon Haworth will explore solutions that will enable a holistic support environment for managing BlackBerry resources across the enterprise. Topics of discussion will include how to:

Identify the most common challenges to enterprise BlackBerry management
Utilize best practices, such as ITIL, to increase the supportability of mobile devices
Enable prompt problem identification and improved time to resolution
Evaluate new solutions that will enable a common interface for managing enterprise BlackBerry support services

This is a can’t-miss event for any organization supporting BlackBerry devices or looking to empower their mobile workforce.
Register now (and have a chance to win a BlackBerry).

For HP Operations Center, Peter Spielvogel.

Get the latest updates on our Twitter feed @HPITOps http://twitter.com/HPITOps

Join the HP OpenView & Operations Management group on LinkedIn.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server - more excitement

pspielvogel — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:12:00 GMT

Apparently Norm Follett’s excitement about HP’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server solution that he expressed in his blog post was contagious. .

Over 80 publications and 20 blogs wrote stories about how HP Operations Manager and related components manages the complete BlackBerry messaging ecosystem. Here are just a few of the publications that wrote interesting articles about the launch.

Publications:

HP Allies With RIM for Mobile Business on Blackberry
PCWorld
May 4 2009
By Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service

HP's CloudPrint Heads into BlackBerrys
HP Labs' e-mail winner CloudPrint came out of the labs' old ad hoc development process even as R&D chief Prith Banerjee pursues a more disciplined approach
Business Week
May 4 2009
By Aaron Ricadela

RIM, HP Announce BlackBerry Print-on-the-Go Tech
PCMagazine.com
May 4 2009
By Mark Hachman

RIM Bolsters Enterprise BlackBerry Products
The company reveals deals with Hewlett-Packard and Cisco, and a new application programming interface for developers.
InformationWeek
May 4 2009
By Marin Perez

RIM and HP unite for BlackBerry business apps
Computer Business Review
May 4 2009
By Steve Evans

RIM, HP in mobile strategic alliance
Partnership between tech firms will serve mobile clients, build on existing relationship
Toronto Star
May 4 2009
By Chris Sorensen

HP launches cloud-based BlackBerry printing, BES management
ITWorldCanada.com
May 4 2009
By Rafael Ruffolo

RIM and Hewlett Packard join forces for BlackBerry services
The Montreal Gazette
May 4 2009
By Staff

RIM Unveils Enterprise Server, Alliance with HP
Wireless Week
May 4 2009
By Andrew Berg

RIM Launches Enterprise Server 5.0, Teams With HP For CloudPrint
ChannelWeb
May 4 2009
By Michele Masterson

RIM, HP To Develop Mobile Road Warrior Solutions
Top Tech News
May 4 2009

By Jennifer LeClaire

HP to BlackBerry businesses: Let us help you
CNet News
May 4 2009
By Lance Whitney

Alliance conclue entre Research In Motion et Hewlett-Packard

Le Soleil

05 May 2009

Blogs:

HP's CloudPrint Coming to BlackBerry
Read Write Web
By Sarah Perez

HP launches cloud-based BlackBerry printing, BES management
ITWorldCanada Blogs
By Rafael Ruffolo

HP and RIM form alliance on BlackBerry
CNBC.com

HP Teams with RIM on BlackBerry Solutions
Mobile Technology
By Ainsley Jones

HP and RIM Announce Strategic Alliance to Mobilize Business on BlackBerry
Death of the Copier
By Greg Walters

RIM rolls out latest BlackBerry Enterprise Server
Zdnet.com
By Larry Dignan

HP, RIM Form BlackBerry Smartphone Alliance
Daily Tech Blog
By Michael Barkoviak

RIM and HP announce strategic alliance and revolutionary initiatives
BlackBerry Cool
By Kyle HP and RIM announce new allied services
We may have heard from them before, but not like this.
BetaNews
By Tim Conneally

For HP Operations Center, Peter Spielvogel.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server - Report from the RIM Wireless Enterprise Symposium

pspielvogel — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:50:00 GMT

From the floor of RIM's Wireless Enterprise Symposium, Norm Follett reports...

There is no sign of a recession in Orlando. As an attendee / presenter at Research in Motion’s 2009 Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) the sense of energy and camaraderie around the mobile professional who consider their Blackberry to be an extra appendage, reminds one of the pre dot bomb days.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server - heart of all BlackBerry deployments
The big message here is around the Blackberry Enterprise Server 5.0 (BES) and its enterprise-oriented features which advance the scalability, security, and usability of the mobile environment. For those not in the know, center to all Blackberry deployments is the Blackberry Enterprise Server, which drives the connectivity and communication across email and data storage services. Many carriers support this service internally to their backbones but call it Blackberry Internet Service (BIS). Regardless, it is the same application with a slightly different deployment model. The ability to view attachments with email, Project, PowerPoint, and view high-end video are among the ‘professional’ friendly features that Research in Motion is taunting as now being supported by BES 5.0. RIM is noting that they have over 100 deployments in production today of their new server (including themselves) and this is the most tested release they’ve ever done. The faithful seem duly impressed. RIM notes there currently are over 200,000 BES servers deployed around the world today.

Going Mobile
All this underscores the trend that all mobility companies and their providers are recognizing/pushing that the ‘handheld’ office is going prime time with businesses. It’s not just email anymore. Providing ‘business supporting services’ on your handheld is not just a cool thing, it will soon be a requirement. Being able to effectively manage and securely deliver data via the handheld is a must.

Business oriented application development, deployment and support is a big new thing as well. As Robin Bienfait, CIO of Blackberry and former head of AT&T Global services noted in a private ‘fireside’ chat for about 80 CxO types, “If you’re trying to figure out how to deploy and support apps on the handheld now, you’re behind. We want to help you catch up”. The takeaway here it that is not just the consumer apps that are taking off (Apple) but the business apps where the next push is coming. By the way, Blackberry clearly has an app developer friendly agenda with their own version of an App Store announced and a scheduled app developer oriented conference for the fall in the SF area. They are after their consumer share as well, not just the business apps.

CloudPrint
HP’s presence here and associated announcements have legitimately created a buzz. At the same ‘fireside’ meeting (It was a picture of a fireplace in a PowerPoint slide), Paul Tsaparis CEO of HP Canada reinforced the two primary messages here, The ‘CloudPrint’ capability for the handheld and HP Operations Manager for the Blackberry Enterprise. Both of these are being well received with the “CloudPrint” being the sizzle and the Operations Manager being the substance (stole that, heard it more than once). Meaning, that seemingly to a person from the RIM executive team to the long line of visitors at the demo station, the solution goes right at the heart of the matter for the Blackberry heroes dispersed in far corners of Enterprises around the world….treating and managing the BES like a first class application on equal footing and of equal importance to other mission critical applications.

Managing the entire ecosystem is bigger than the sum of the parts
HP’s message here is simple, if you want to effectively manage and insure quality service to the lines of business your companies mobile services, you have to manage the entire ecosystem, not just the element provider (BES). Not only does it seem to be hitting the mark with the Blackberry packing throngs of those that must support these sidearms for their companies, but the press seem to be grabbing on to it as there have been over 200 separate articles written as a result of the press release and other activities taking place this week.

For those that have done their share of booth duty, an interesting observation around the Operations Manager booth is that most of our conversations are around about 20 minutes long. People are digging in and really want to understand what they are seeing and how it can be applied. The show goers feature an interesting mix of about 65% CxO types with purchasing power making calls about their mobility services, and 30% of those who must do the lifting to support. The other 5% seem to be trying to sell something to the rest.

The Tipping Point
In the HP slot on the floor we have the CloudPrint service, Service Activator, Proliant servers and Operations Manager for the Blackberry Enterprise. For Operations Center, we’re demonstrating our OMi console consuming, correlating, and troubleshooting events related to Blackberry services across Exchange servers, Active Directory servers, databases, and Blackberry Enterprise Servers. Big lines and great conversations….

Today, Shane Robison, CTO of HP, delivers the keynote and then shares the stage with Jim Balsillie co-CEO of RIM. Malcolm Gladwell, author of Tipping Point is the next speaker in line. Feels like HP and RIM are pushing the tip over regarding enterprise mobility management at this event. And, by all account, people are getting it…and are trying to prepare for it. More on today’s activities later...

For Operations Center, Norm Follett.